Street cleaner



0. J. ORSER STREET CLEANER May 26, 1931.

Filed Aug. 1'7. 1929 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

WAT am A TTORNE Y.

May 26, 1931. o. J. ORSER STREET CLEANER Filed Aug. 17, 1929 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. 0%? W ATTORNEY.

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y 6, 1931. o. J. ORSER 1,807,250

STREET CLEANER Filed Aug. 17. -1929 s Shets-Sheet 5 FTGLS' Hal...

INVENTOR.

IFTCL BY I 'WJJW ATTORNEY.

Patented May 26, 1931 UNITED STATES OTTO J'. ORSER, OF DENVER, COLORADO STREET CLEANER Application filed August 17, 1929. Serial No. 386,698.

My invention relates to street cleaners and more especially to such cleaners for use after a fall of snow.

Under present conditions of traffic, even a fairly heavy fall of snow causes great disorganization throughout a city.

In order to keep their lines open, the street car companies start to run their sweeper cars as soon as it appears that the snow may get deep enough to cause trouble in keeping the cars moving.

By steady running of a great enough number of sweeper cars, all through the night if necessary, the car tracks can be kept clean and the snow prevented from collecting upon them deep enough to stop the cars.

This works out very well as far as the street car tracks are concerned; but all the snow swept from the car tracks must go some place, and-the result is a great pile of snow on each side of the street, filling the gutter, piling up above the curb, and even upon the sidewalk.

This pile of snow along the curbs is gen- 26 erally so heavy, and packed so hard that a sweeper will make no impression upon it, and a plow is stopped.

As a result, inmost cases all the snow in the piles along the. curbs is shoveled into Wagons by hand. 7

The cost of this in the downtown section of a city of about 300,000 inhabitants, with as a six inch fall of snow recently, is said to have totaled $35,000.00.

Apparently there is no machine as yet developed which will with certainty and economy remove such piles of snow along 4 the curbs when they are heavy and packed, and possibly frozen on the outer crust at least. 7 c

It is the object of this invention to pro- I vide a machine which will positively, quickly and economically remove heavy, packed and plow will merely pile it up till the partly frozen piles of snow from alongthe curbs of city streets.

I attain this object by providing a wheeled vehicle upon which is mounted a numberof power driven revolving shovels which are adapted to remove substantially all the snow which extends up above the level of the curb;

a plow which is carried by the vehicle and which follows the shovels and acts to move I the comparatively small amount of snow remaining against the'curb, and a second set of revolving shovels which act upon the snow left by the plow,

The full details of this construction are described below and are illustrated in the b drawings, in which Figure 1 is a plan View of my street cleaner combined with a loader. v

Figure 2 is a side elevation of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 Figure 1. y

The frame 1, journals the drive shaft 2, which is provided with the driving gears 3' an 4.

Upon the frame 1 are also journaled the crankshafts 5 and 6, provided with driven gears 7 and 8 respectively, through which the crankshaft's are driven from the gears 3 and 4 on the shaft 2.

The cranksha'fts are provided with shovels 9, which are attached to the cranks of the crankshafts by the bolts 10 and the set screws 10, or in any other proper manner so long so as the attachment provided is strong a-ndreliable, and permits variation of the angular position of the shovels to control their angle of attack, as is taken up more fully below.

As the crankshafts revolve the shovels sweep throughcircles as indicated by dotted lines at 11, 11 in Figure 1.

The plow 12 is pivotally attached to the is a section on the line 44 of frame 1 by the beam 13 and the pivot 14.

The plow 12 is vertically adjusted by the threaded adjusting wheel 15, co-operating with the lift rod 16. The lift rod 16 is connected to the plow by the strong spring 17, which provides enough upward give to prevent breakage in the case of obstacles being encountered by the plow.

The bolts 18 prevent the plow from dropping below the level set, while permitting its upward movement against the pressure of the spring 17 In operation, it will be seen that the front shovel 9 onthe shaft 5 sweeps through a circle which will clear the snow from in front of the plow and down nearly to the height of the curb.

Thus, as the plow moves along, all it has to do is to throw snow of about the depth of the curb height, out away from the curb where the second shovel on the crankshaft 5 will attack and move it still further from the curb.

The second and thirdshovels having greater throws than the first shovel will clean the snow nearlyto the street surface.

Snow which falls in back of the plow, and

' snow which is moved out from the. curb but which escapes the shovels on the crankshaft 5 will be attacked and moved outward by the shovels on the crankshaft 6.

The size of the shovels 9 may be proportioned to the depth and heaviness of the snow and to the amount of iceit contains.

. That is, larger shovels may be-mounted on the crankshafts 5 and 6 if the snow is not too deep and is light enough to be easily handled by the larger shovels. If the. snow 7 is excessively deep and heavy and the temrequire the shovels to strike it more nearly perature is low enough to havecrusted with ice the outer surface of the curb piles, smaller shovels may be mounted upon the crankshafts, and they may be runat a higher speed by change of the relative sizes of the driving and the driven gears, or in anyother proper-manner by which increased crankshaft speed may be obtained,

The angular position of the shovels on the crankshafts may also bechanged to suit conditions. That is, the shovels mayastrike fairly lightsnow almost flatwise; but heavy snow, or snow'with a slight crust'of ice may edgewise; and snow frozen solid will require an edgewise attack combined with small shovels and high crankshaft speed. 1

By my shovel construction the snow is moved in small amounts at a time, just as it is moved by manually operated shovels. But the power driven shovels, by their high speed of operation, and the co-operation of the plow, will do the same amount of work as a very large number; of men, and at ,a very much decreased cost.

7 My device is adapted to be mounted upon the frame of a wheeled vehicle, and the shaft ,2'is to be driven by proper connection with one or more of the wheels of the vehicle, or if it be a motor-driven vehicle, by proper connection with the power plant thereof, or in either case, the shaft 2 may, if desired, be driven by a separate and independent power plant.

In any case the main points are the same in that the street cleaner is to be properly mounted and carried by wheels and the crankshafts are to be driven by some proper form of drive.

The device may be mounted upon a loader without power, and which is to be towed or pushed, such as shown in the drawings; or the device may be mounted upon a power driven loader.

But, in any case, regardless of what kind, type, or construction of vehicle with which my device is combined the general result will be the same in that the movement of the vehicle carries the plow, and the revolution of the crankshaftsactuate the shovels to operate upon and break up the snow-bank and move it out away from the curb where it can be loaded by a loader integral with my cleaning device or by a separate loader, or where it may be taken up by scrapers, by shovels, or in any other manner desired. As shown in the drawings there is a loader, designated as a whole as 19, and driving means 20 therefor.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to protect by Letters Patent, is as follows 1. In a street cleaner adaptedto. remove snow from along street curbs, a wheeled frame, a plow carried thereby and vertically adjustable with respect thereto to move material away from the curb toward the longitudinal center of the frame, a multi-throw crankshaft journaled on the frame, shovels mounted upon thecranks of the crankshaft, and means to revolve the crankshaft.

2. In a street cleaner adapted to remove snow from along the curbs of streets, a wheeled frame, a plow carried thereby and vertically adjustable with respect thereto adapted to move material away from the curb toward the longitudinal center of the frame, a multi-throw crankshaft journaled on the frame, shovels adjustably mounted on and means to vertically adjustable with respect thereto to move material away from the curb toward the longitudinal center of the frame, a multithrow crankshaft journaled on the frame and provided with a power drive, the forward throw of said shaft being shorter than the other throws and positioned to sweep in front of the said plow at a height toclear said curb,

and shovels adj ustably mounted on the cranks of the crankshaft.

4. In a street cleaner adapted to remove snow from along the curbs of streets, a wheeled frame, a plow carried thereby and vertically adjustable with respect thereto, a multi-throw crankshaft journaled on the frame, its forward throw positioned to sweep in front of said plow, a second multi-throw crankshaft journaled on the frame, its forward throw positioned to sweep behind said plow, shovels attached to the cranks of said crankshaft and power means connected to drive said crankshafts.

5. In a street cleaner adapted to remove snow from along the curbs of streets, a wheeled frame, a plow carried thereby and vertically adjustable with respect thereto, a multi-throw crankshaft journaled on the frame, its forward throw positioned to sweep in front of said plow, a second multi-throw crankshaft journaled on the frame, its forward throw positioned to sweep behind said plow, shovels attached to the cranks of said crankshafts, and gear and shaft connections between said crankshafts and one of the wheels of said frame to rotate the crankshafts as the cleaner advances.

6. In a street cleaner adapted to remove snow from along the curbs of streets, a wheeled frame, a plow carried thereby and vertically adjustable with respect thereto to move material away from the curb toward the longitudinal center of the frame, a multithrow crankshaft j ournaled on the frame, its forward throw positioned to sweep in front of said plow, a second multi-throw crankshaft journaled on the frame, its forward throw positioned to sweep behind said plow, shovels attached to the cranks of said crankshafts, gear and shaft connections between said crankshafts and one of the wheels of said frame to rotate the crankshafts as the cleaner advances, a loading device mounted on said frame, and means connected to drive said loading device.

7 In a street cleaner adapted to remove snow from along the curbs of streets, a wheeled frame, a plow carried thereby and vertically adjustable with respect thereto, a multi-throw crankshaft journaled on the frame, its forward throw positioned to sweep in front of said plow, a second multithrow crankshaft journaled on the frame, its forward throw positioned to sweep behind said plow, both of said crankshafts being obliquely positioned on the frame, shovels adjustably attached to the cranks of said crankshafts, and power drive connections between one of the wheels of said frame and the crankshafts whereby the crankshafts are revolved by movement of the cleaner.

8. In a street cleaner adapted to remove snow from along the curbs of streets, a wheeled frame, a plow carried thereby and I the said plow, both of said crankshafts being obliquely positioned on the frame, power driven connections to revolve saiol crankshafts, and a loading device carried by the frame.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

OTTO J. ORSER. 

